Leftovers: A History of Food Waste and Preservation

'Bingeable' – The Telegraph
'A book for our time' – The Spectator
'[Barnett's] an indefatigable researcher' – The Mail on Sunday

A richly entertaining and topical history of food preservation and waste in Britain from the Elizabethan kitchen to the present day.

At a time when a third of the food we produce globally is wasted, Eleanor Barnett opens a window on the everyday experiences of ordinary people in the past to reveal how factors such as religion, class and gender have historically shaped attitudes towards food waste.

Leftovers deploys a wide historical lens to link the many ingenious ways in which our ancestors sought to extend the life of food – encompassing Tudor household management, Victorian public health initiatives and two World Wars – to such contemporary anxieties as climate change, globalisation, scientific advancement, poverty and inequality.

Eleanor Barnett holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has recently been awarded a Leverhulme research fellowship. Her work uses food as a lens through which to access the daily lives of ordinary people as well as wider cultural, economic, political and religious historical processes. As @historyeats on Instagram, she posts daily food history stories, paintings and objects from across the world to a wide audience, and she is a regular contributor to radio and other public-facing media. Leftovers is her first non-fiction title.

ISBN: 9781803281582
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Published: July 29, 2025

“I gobbled this delicious book as hungrily as a plate of bubble and squeak with damson chutney.” —Tristram Stuart, leading food waste activist

“Meticulously researched and full of good things, Eleanor Barnett makes leftovers into a real feast.” —Annie Grey, food historian

“A fascinating and eye-opening read about the history of food preservation and waste in Britain from the sixteenth-century kitchen to the food justice movements, environmental issues and globalisation in the present day. Leftovers shows that food waste is of all times but seldom intended.” —Regula Ysewijn, , author of Oats in the North Wheat from the South

“Eleanor Barnett is a rare breed...an academic who can really write.” —Dan Jones, author of Powers and Thrones

“Barnett excels at choosing specific, often funny examples that demystify the past, a skill she's honed from running her popular Instagram account, @historyeats. Her nimble, confident writing makes Leftovers bingeable (as it were), without coming at the expense of rigour or depth. It's clear that she loves her subject material, and her enthusiasm is contagious” —The Telegraph